Various compositions have been developed for electroplating gold and which do not employ cyanide electrolytes. There are problems in compounding these formulations since gold cyanide complexes are the most readily available soluble gold compounds. Alkali metal gold sulfites have been utilized for the purpose of making noncyanide gold plating solutions, but frequently such sulfites are contaminated by chloride ion. Moreover, present techniques for making alkali metal gold sulfites are difficult, hazardous and expensive.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel and efficient process for producing alkali metal gold sulfite which is substantially free from chloride ion contamination.
It is also an object to provide such a process in which the alkali metal gold sulfite can be prepared economically in a relatively short period of time without complicated and costly equipment.
Another object is to provide such a process in which the alkali metal gold sulfite is recovered as a relatively concentrated solution readily adapted to formulation into plating solutions.